Sharon Fast Gustafson. Courtesy photo.

Sharon Fast Gustafson, the Trump administration's pick for general counsel to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, reported earning more than $1 million in legal fees at the Virginia-based solo law office she has run since 1995, according to a financial disclosure released on Monday.

Gustafson, widely known for successfully taking a pregnancy discrimination case against United Parcel Service Inc. to the U.S. Supreme Court, has primarily represented employees with discrimination and benefits claims.

Her financial disclosure, a mandatory filing for many executive nominees, covers income received in 2017 and part of this year. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee has not yet set a date for Gustafson's confirmation hearing.

Gustafson's disclosure identified legal services that included her work for a handful of employees in labor and employment disputes.

In one case, Gustafson represented a worker named Rosa Paasch, who claimed she was retaliated against by her employer, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, when she alerted superiors that the organization was allegedly not compliant with benefits obligations.

In another case, Gustafson represented a former Buffalo Wild Wings employee named Linda Ruff, who claimed she was terminated after she complained that a man with less experience earned more than she did. Gustafson, in another matter, represented a female police officer, Shalonda Tomkins Davis, who claimed the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department did not address sexual harassment against her.

Gustafson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

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Gustafson at the Supreme Court successfully advocated for Peggy Young, a UPS delivery worker, in a pregnancy discrimination case. Her website bio includes a link to the 2015 opinion in the case, which was argued at the high court by Sam Bagenstos, a University of Michigan law professor.

Gustafson said in an ethics agreement, also released on Monday, that her law firm will go into inactive status and that outstanding legal fees will be paid before she enters government service.

“Upon confirmation, my law firm will cease engaging in any business, including the representation of clients and the operation of a website,” Gustafson said in her ethics pledge. “During my appointment to the position of general counsel, the law firm will remain dormant and will not advertise. I will not perform any services for the firm, except that I will comply with any requirements involving legal filings, taxes and fees that are necessary to maintain the law firm while it is in an inactive status.”

Gustafson said she will not participate “personally and substantially in any particular matter that to my knowledge has a direct and predictable effect on the ability or willingness of any of these clients to pay these amounts.”

Gustafson said she will resign from her position as a trustee at the Massachusetts-based Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Seyfarth Shaw partners Gerald Maatman and Andrew Scroggins recently said in a blog post that the business and employer community—likely expecting a management-side defense lawyer for EEOC general counsel—was sure to have “prompt discussion” about the nomination of Gustafson.

On Monday, Maatman said Gustafson's financial disclosure and client list confirmed his view that Gustafson was a non-traditional choice for a Republican administration, given that she has principally represented workers in small cases.

“The mold in the past would be a labor and employment attorney who more often than not represented employers,” Maatman said. “She has a small law background, representing individual plaintiffs, not in systemic cases.”

Maatman said Gustafson has handled weighty issues, noting her case at the Supreme Court. He said clients have called asking about what Gustafson's nomination means for the future of the EEOC.

Two other Republican nominees to the EEOC—Janet Dhillon, former general counsel to Burlington Stores, for chair, and West Point professor Daniel Gade—are awaiting confirmation in the U.S. Senate. Chai Feldblum, an Obama-appointee, was nominated for reappointment by the Trump administration.

Gustafson's financial disclosure is posted below:

And her ethics agreement is posted here:

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